BFI has first voluntary route deal
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• Waste disposal operator BFI has won its battle to set up a site for Dorset's rubbish without binding legal agreements on lorry routing.
The successful planning appeal by BFI is the first to follow new rules by the Department of Environment, under which councils can no longer legally control lorry routes in and out of waste disposal, quarry and mineral extraction sites.
Instead, the company has signed an agreement which requires it to use "best endeavour" to discourage lorries from using locally sensitive roads into the Beacon Hill site near Poole. In its planning application BFI said it wanted to develop a three-million cubic-metre site. Estimates from the council and company varied between 280 and 370 lorry movements a day.
Dorset County Council had previously refused planning permission at Beacon Hill, saying that it distrusted the principle of gentlemen's agreements and preferred binding agreements on lorry routing.
BFI will have a video camera at the site entrance to check the direction from which vehicles approach. If they arrive from the wrong direction the company has agreed to warn the haulier concerned. Further infringements will incur written warnings followed by a refusal to use the haulier again.